Xenomorph – Qlippoth

Xenomorph remains one of the most unique artists on the psytrance scene today. He has almost single-handedly raised up a new generation of horror trance artists with his ongoing mastering efforts and collaborations. Qlippoth is his long-awaited second album, the follow up to Cassandra’s Nightmare released many years ago on Koyote Records. Be aware that this is the absolute darkest that psytrance ever gets, with a clear industrial influence, and extensive use of samples. This is not an album for everyone.

Sepulchre opens the journey with a slow and laborious march. An intro sequence sets the mood with spooky cinematic sounds and a howling wind, soon halted by the introduction of the droning beat. It is like a braindead zombie; a dry hollow pulsing that lacks depth, mainly there to set the atmosphere. Creepy sounds swirl all around and a typical sample plays through: “Go ahead, tie me down to the stake… but you will never escape my hunger, nor that of Satan!” Much of the body of the song is filled with highly manipulated samples, drifting by like voices of phantasms on a bitter wind, as the repetitive beat pulses away in an aggravating fashion. After a sample about a ritual summoning of Lucifer an assortment of twisted psychedelic sounds starts to dabble around, and soon there is even a distinct melody on the go, still with the droning beat ponderously advancing beneath. This first song isn’t individually to my liking but surely sets the atmosphere well.

Haunted creeps forth with another howling wind, and the sound of waves battering a barren shore with malevolent insistence. In time the beat comes barreling in, churning away with a very synthetic feel as rough bass notes pulse in time to the deep kicks. The first several minutes are solely atmospheric, with clattering percussive notes that echo off into the dark, eerie choirs playing at the limits of hearing, and too many small mood-building sounds to name. After half of the track has played through a very dark and sedate stringed melody begins to flare up. A brooding break lets a simple arpeggiated riff develop, and the track returns with all sounds working in tandem to inspire the psychedelic horror feeling with remarkable effectiveness. The structuring on this one is actually of a progressive nature, with a slow accumulation of polished sounds, but one could not call it anything other than dark psychedelic trance. A lot better than the first song; delightfully subtle.

Tzelmavet (Shadow of Death in Hebrew) is another great journey through dark trance, once again upping the energy levels from the previous. Here the listener is beginning to get to the blackened heart of the album. A droning beat with a moody bass riff begins to churn as a church bell rings. Atmosphere is rapidly sent with an eerie set of pads that lightly caress, accompanied by a growing assortment of trippy psychedelic sounds. Ripping noises begin to fly all over as the track really gets going, soon reaching a hellish breakdown. Hypnotic test tones come whirling in from the void and soon the beat is back, letting these new dark melodies rise to power with the usual demonic assortment of background sounds. Another deep and mysterious break ratchets up the intensity, as a garbled voice speaks from beyond the grave: “where I am… it is dark… dark… cold… very cold / there are others… many many others…” More wild sequences play through following this lull, invoking moody tones and freaky sounds. The final break is the longest, featuring a slow climb back to the final run with the beat pulsing away in a vacant post-apocalyptic soundscape. An indisputable gem of the horror trance style.

The Pit and the Pendulum is another infernal offering from the master, featuring a lumbering beat that lopes from kick to kick. Extensive samples are back, playing throughout much of the first few minutes of the song. Creepy psychedelic sounds lurk with sinister persistence over the droning percussion, growing towards a blooming at the three minute mark. Big layers of crazy sound come peeling out of the speakers in rising waves, vertiginous and chaotic. All the energy comes crashing down to a very spooky sequence in the heart of the song, with echoing sounds and creepy noises sneaking across the moody beats with languid malaise. Another extremely dark sequence later on leads the song out to a dramatic conclusion. This one is another solid piece of terrifying psychedelia, full of evocative sounds and diabolical moods.

Gehinom (Hell) cracks the whip and begins to expound another tale of woe, with samples featured prominently throughout the song once again. The beat takes on a bit of an industrial feel with off-beat snare hits, and there is significant activity with hi-hats. Droning psychedelic sounds richly scatter across the field of hearing and drive the track towards a tension-breaking pause. The return ushers in a new dark atmosphere with whispered verses, sobbing children, ritualistic pronouncements, and the like. Strange time signatures cause smooth oscillations in tempo that work wonderfully, piling up on top of one another to sublimely relaunch the lead melody with a touch of guitar thrown in for variety. Another solid piece of extremely dark psytrance, though despite the interesting time-shifting features it is perhaps not as enjoyable as some of the others.

Shaari Avadon (Gates of Doom) ups the ante with a faster and harder beat. This one pounds in a way similar to the older Xenomorph song Hexxenkessel, with a mid-range sort of kick unique to the artist. By now the album is digging deeper into the psychedelic trance realm with snarling sounds scattering all across the stereo field with greater density. A droning melody is introduced close to the three minute mark and soon churns between intense passages of frightening atmospheres, reaching a break where another sample plays: “Welcome to Hell!” Cinematic flourishes light up and recede, leaving droning effects to grumble over the stomping beat. Another small transition led by a sample lets a few dark melodies spiral out, and the track begins to build in intensity once again, towards a kicking breakdown. Eerie sounds fill the abyss: dark melodies and mysterious tones, wailing screams and other effects. The kick drum comes rolling out of the miasma at double time and revives the evil energy of the song with great force. The song then drones its way through the last sequence without many more surprises, and a final sample concludes the tale: “a gateway to another dimension… a dimension of pure chaos – pure evil.” Another great song, though it is eclipsed by some of the other highlights.

Tree of Death was previously released on an Acidance compilation, but is a welcome inclusion. This is easily the most full-on track to be found here, with a pulsing bottom-end and hard chunky kicks. Digital effects cause electrical interference in the early portions, with an off-beat snare entering to provide added punch to the percussive strata. A grinding guitar makes an appearance, snarling its way from riff to riff with confident menace. Early on the song reveals all its secrets as the guitar synchronizes with several other harsh melodies to impose a black mood on the listener. This soon relents and thrusts the song into the tension-building middle sequence featuring a spooky set of epic melodies that drop from the higher frequency range with a melancholy feel. Several sequences play through with a variety of tricky effects and then the big break is reached. The processed guitar comes rising from the depth to powerfully usher in the return of the beat and then the song just kicks it for the remainder, never growing beyond what has already been laid out. Effective on dance floors, and certainly a raw peak for the album, but it is crafted with less subtlety and artistic skill than the rest of the songs here.

Antimatter opens with a long mood-setting sample: “Suppose… what your faith has said is essentially correct. Suppose there is a universal mind controlling everything – a God willing the behavior of every subatomic particle. Well, every particle has an anti-particle… its mirror image… its negative side. Maybe… this universal mind resides in the mirror image instead of in our universe as we wanted to believe. Maybe he’s Anti-God, bringing darkness instead of light!” Cinematic chords begin to play above some grooving kicks, and a wide assortment of psychedelic and industrial sounds can immediately be heard snarling around. Deranged melodies emerge, undergo rapid transmutation into new forms, and soon give way to a series of excellent ripping noises that come flying up from the depths to provide a very trippy atmosphere. Xenomorph’s usual style of arrangement comes into play as the song drops down into a moody and dramatic middle sequence – the eye of the storm. Screams and an industrial-sounding off-beat snare kick the song back into energetic states as a totally mental lead takes off, fluttering with frothing neurotic fervor. Another lull comes to pass with more background cinematics and many samples, all about illusions, the devil, black holes, and other subjects that mesh fairly well. The final reprise lets the song surge forth with melancholy, reaching an excellent themed conclusion. This is another highlight for the album, transitioning between many different pieces of a cohesive story, all very evocative and highly psychedelic.

The title track Qlippoth is actually a moody piece of dark ambient, filled with a terrifying assortment of garbled and manipulated samples from babies crying, voices mumbling in thick atmospheres of creepy synthetic sounds. There isn’t an ongoing beat but a slow rhythm can be discerned, with ponderous crashes of snares and other rough industrial drums amidst all the swirling chaotic filter sweeps. For an atmospheric finale this song serves its purpose well. There is also a secret track that may as well have been an outro for this last piece with some metallic breathing and more dark ambiance.

Xenomorph’s second album is an unholy psychedelic monster. There is simply no other release quite like it. 2004 has been a big year for the emerging movement of dark and heavy horror trance, but so far none of the new artists have even scratched the surface of moods that Mark Petrick plunges the listener into without consideration for their mental health. Potential buyers should be warned – this album is truly not for the faint of heart. The relentless negativity will only appeal to certain fans of the psytrance sound. Others may wonder why music this dark would cause a person to smile but anyone who experiences that seemingly nonintuitive reaction will understand. Appreciating this album does not require a background in industrial or Gothic music, but it will surely help!

It is clear this is the product of a fan of horror movies, for the sample usage is pervasive. I’m not often a fan of such widespread sampling, but each excerpt contributes to the overall theme and fits comfortably whenever used. The production of the album isn’t as strong as most modern releases – but this permits greater depth of sound in some areas. The album isn’t crafted purely for dance floor mayhem anyway, though several songs on here can accomplish that in the right set and setting. Only Tree of Death is really geared purely towards the dance floor – all others may have an application there, but are most enjoyable when heard in other contexts. One thing the album surely excels at is creating a truly psychedelic atmosphere with a rich tapestry of evocative noises. Qlippoth is the real horror trance – everything else is a pale imitation. If you enjoy the darkest of psychedelic sounds consider this essential.